Etymology

bassist

B3A1S1S1I1S1T1

Today it means: A musician who plays a bass instrument, especially the bass guitar. Full definition →

English bass ← Italian bassoinflu. ← Middle English base
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*gʷem-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*gʷémtis
  3. Proto-Hellenic*gʷə́tis
  4. Ancient Greekβᾰ́σῐς (bắsĭs)
  5. Latinbasis
  6. Old Frenchbase
  7. Middle Englishbase
  8. Englishbase
  9. Italianbassoinflu.
  10. Englishbass
  11. English todaybassist

From bass + -ist.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.